Beauty and the Terror

The Italian Renaissance shaped Western culture - but it was far stranger and darker than many of us realise.

''Brilliant and gripping, here is the full true Renaissance in a history of compelling originality and freshness'' Simon Sebag Montefiore

We know the Mona Lisa for her smile, but not that she was married to a slave-trader. We revere Leonardo da Vinci for his art, but few now appreciate his in...